The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 are the most recent pair of true wi-fi earbuds from the corporate and the sequel to the 2023 OnePlus Buds Professional 2. The brand new mannequin comes with all of the bells and whistles, together with a twin driver, twin DAC design with Dynaudio tuning, adaptive noise cancellation, pinch gestures, fake leather-based design, and spatial audio. They will even observe the place of your neck, so you’ll be able to lastly cease slouching.
Right this moment we will probably be evaluating OnePlus’ latest flagship audio product and see the way it stacks up on this aggressive market.
Design and luxury
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 strikes from the horizontal case design of the earlier two fashions to a vertical structure. The circumstances of this era have a two-tone design, with a leathery texture on the back and front and a metallic end on the edges.
The outside end is neither actual nor vegan leather-based however simply exhausting plastic textured to seem like leather-based. As such, it solely appears to be like like leather-based however the second you maintain the case in your hand, it is instantly obvious it is simply plastic.
The back and front of the case have logos for OnePlus and Dynaudio, respectively. On the underside is the charging port with an LED that signifies the charging standing. On the correct aspect is the pairing button.
Open the lid and you’re greeted by the 2 earbuds and one other LED for pairing standing. The hinge on the lid could be very nicely made with completely zero side-to-side motion.
The earbuds are fantastically designed with completely polished cylindrical stems. The shiny plastic switches to a matte-finished ring with the Dynaudio branding, simply earlier than it switches into the inside plastic. The inside plastic bits have the L and R logos carved into them that make them act like vents, very similar to on the Nord Buds 3 Professional.
The stems on the earbuds are pressure-sensitive and assist gestures. You possibly can squeeze the stems as soon as, twice, or thrice for various gestures. There’s additionally a quantity adjustment gesture, which works by grabbing the stem such as you would for a squeeze gesture however then sliding your index finger up and down somewhat than squeezing them.
General, regardless of the marginally plasticky really feel of the pretend leather-based on the surface, the case and the earbuds are well-designed and have good constructed high quality. The earbuds are additionally IP55 licensed, in order that’s a bonus.
When it comes to consolation, the Buds Professional 3 are respectable. The plastic shell is barely chunky so despite the fact that it did not harm or really feel uncomfortable in my ears, I might all the time really feel their presence and never overlook that I used to be sporting them. I did discover the default ear suggestions, whereas supple, would slip out of the ears too simply. The left one would periodically get free by itself and must be readjusted.
Software program and options
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 are appropriate with the HeyMelody app for Android and iOS. On OnePlus units, the earbuds may be managed by way of the Bluetooth settings. Both means, you’re getting the identical choices.
The app options the same old assortment of settings; you’ll be able to modify the ANC, which on this case consists of three ranges of attenuation together with an automated Good mode, EQ, a Hello-Res mode toggle (permits sampling charges over 48kHz for LHDC), Golden Sound (customizes the tuning to your listening to), and Spatial Audio, which additionally consists of head monitoring by way of onboard movement sensors.
The app additionally permits you to customise your earbud controls. You possibly can customise single, double, and triple squeeze gestures, together with the slide gesture. As with different fashions, I’ve discovered squeeze gestures typically superior as they’re powerful to set off by accident when sporting or eradicating the earbuds.
ANC and EQ
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 additionally function the neck vertebrae well being function that was added later for the Buds Professional 2. It makes use of onboard sensors to detect your neck place and utilizing the OHealth app gives reminders to repair your posture.
The earbuds even have multi-device pairing, and you may handle all paired units by way of the app. The function is disabled by default so you will want the app to allow it.
Gestures • Golden Sound • Spatial Audio
On the HeyMelody app, you’ll be able to allow a Sport mode to cut back latency. On OnePlus units, the paired gadget will routinely set off the sport mode when it detects a sport being launched.
Lastly, you may as well replace the firmware by way of the app. That is presupposed to make the gadget higher, however, as you may quickly see, also can make it worse.
Efficiency
Audio high quality
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 function a dual-driver design, which incorporates an 11mm woofer and a 6mm tweeter. Every driver additionally will get its devoted DAC for decreased crosstalk, interference, and higher energy administration.
The earbuds assist SBC, AAC, and LHDC 5.0. There isn’t a LDAC, which implies for a overwhelming majority of Android units, you’ll be downgraded to AAC as LHDC continues to be pretty unusual. There may be additionally no Bluetooth LE audio or LC3 assist.
OnePlus claims the Buds Professional 3 are tuned by Dynaudio. All of the EQ presets within the app have a Dynaudio label subsequent to them, despite the fact that 4 out of 5 presets are equivalent to what you discover on virtually each different OnePlus audio product. It is solely the ‘Dynaudio featured’ preset that stands out as its description reads ‘Balances bass, mids and treble to duplicate the sound of Dynaudio audio system.’ Sounds promising, proper?
After I first received the earbuds and switched to this preset, it was like catching lightning in a bottle. Right here was a really consumer-grade product aimed on the common consumer with excellent, audiophile-grade tuning for at the very least one in all its presets. It did not matter if the sound matched Dynaudio audio system or, certainly, if it was even tuned by Dynaudio. It was good, interval.
Apparently, it was too good, or maybe not good in any respect relying on which focus group OnePlus consulted, as a result of in got here an replace per week later that completely ran that Dynaudio featured preset into the bottom. Gone are the fantastically balanced bass and mid-range with vibrant glowing highs and changed with what now appears like listening to your automobile audio whereas standing outdoors the automobile. The bass has been jacked up and married to a dirty, muddy mid-range, which makes all the decrease half of the frequency spectrum sound bloated. In addition they removed any and all high-frequency vitality so now it simply appears like a 96kbps MP3 recording of an AM radio broadcast.
I want to assume this was a mistake however OnePlus does not have the best observe document in these issues. Even the so-called Hans Zimmer Soundscape Tuning preset on the Buds Professional 2 was utter garbage and would make Zimmer curl up in a fetal place if he have been to ever take heed to it.
The unique Dynaudio featured preset on the Buds Professional 3 was a slam dunk second for these earbuds however with that defenestrated, we’ve to fall again on the remaining presets. The so-called Balanced (Default) preset is, in true OnePlus vogue, something however balanced. It is a traditional v-shaped tuning, with raised bass and treble and suppressed mids. I do not thoughts this preset a lot because the bass enhance is basically tasteful and the intense highs are kind of how one would anticipate them to be. It is simply that the mids are suppressed a bit an excessive amount of, which pushes vocals means in direction of the again of the combination, and infrequently makes you wish to improve the amount to compensate.
I struggled to determine how the Daring preset differs from Balanced at first as they sound very related. From what I can inform, Daring has barely much less mid-bass and high-end sparkle, making it a much less v-shaped model of Balanced and thus typically extra balanced, satirically.
Serenade turns the bass and treble down significantly from Balanced whereas additionally jacking up the mids. That is unabashedly a mid-forward tuning and does work for some genres and content material but it surely goes a bit too far with the mids and might sound a bit honky.
The Bass preset appears like Balanced with extra bass. There’s not a lot else to it.
OnePlus additionally gives you with a six-band EQ to customise the sound additional. As is common for OnePlus, the baseline 0 worth for the customized EQ is the Balanced preset, and never a real 0, so you’re basically tuning the Balanced preset. You possibly can’t make changes to any of the opposite presets.
Lastly, there’s the BassWave function, which gives a dial to show up and down the bass. I am undecided why this must exist when you may have customized EQ except for the truth that you’ll be able to allow it on prime of different presets somewhat than changing them.
Regardless of the crime that was dedicated with the nerfing of the Dynaudio featured preset, what saves the sound of the Buds Professional 3 is that it’s extremely detailed. The driving force mixture sounds fairly good and whilst you aren’t fairly getting wired ranges of element right here, I used to be fairly impressed with what I used to be listening to. These are simply a number of the most detailed wi-fi earbuds in the marketplace at the moment. The drivers even have respectable imaging efficiency with an okay soundstage.
Microphone
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 have respectable microphone efficiency. The audio is obvious however the voice sounds a bit robotic. There may be additionally a small quantity of artifacting within the voice, which makes it sound a bit crunchy, for the shortage of a greater phrase.
Nonetheless, the earbuds do an important job of masking background noise, even when it will get loud or windy. Your voice additionally stays comprehensible beneath these circumstances. So whereas not the very best total, it is a respectable setup for calls.
Noise cancellation
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 have adaptive noise cancellation, which implies it adapts the extent of noise isolation to your environment, even in case you manually set it to the max stage.
Noise cancellation on OnePlus earbuds has been nice for a while now and the Buds Professional 3 are not any exception. You get really flagship-level noise cancellation right here that works very well in virtually each surroundings. It additionally adapts nicely to windy circumstances, turning down the ANC stage to get rid of the buffeting impact. I am additionally significantly happy with the best way it tunes out voices in your environment, one thing they’ve targeted on with this mannequin. If there’s something they’ll enhance upon, it is lowering the sound of keyboard clicks, as they do have a tendency to come back by way of in all probability greater than they need to.
The transparency mode additionally works nicely though there’s some room for enchancment. The sound could be very pure but it surely appears to focus extra on ambient noise patterns than, say, somebody chatting with you. I believe the transparency system ought to do the other of the ANC and prioritize voices extra, particularly for these in your fast neighborhood.
Latency
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 have wonderful latency efficiency. Often, wi-fi earbuds are inclined to depend on the sport mode to carry down the delay however the Buds Professional 3 work extremely nicely out of the field even with a desktop PC, which does not also have a companion app, not to mention a sport mode. Sport mode makes this even higher, making these completely viable for informal gaming.
Connectivity
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 had good connectivity efficiency throughout testing. Even when utilizing the LHDC codec at 900kbps, the connection was secure whereas strolling across the room, one thing you completely can not take as a right on earbuds as this isn’t in any respect widespread.
The twin connection function additionally labored nicely and it was fairly easy to pair the earbuds with, say, a PC and a cellphone. As soon as paired, you’ll be able to change settings on the earbuds by way of the cellphone app even when it is taking part in audio from the PC.
Battery Life
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 have a claimed battery lifetime of 6 hours with AAC and 5 hours with LHDC whereas taking part in music. With ANC disabled, OnePlus claims 10 hours for AAC with no declare for LHDC.
Whereas the ANC on figures are probably the most related, it isn’t straightforward to check battery life with ANC on because it requires contact with pores and skin (ideally your ears) to activate. It is also troublesome to check with adaptive ANC as you want a relentless background noise so it does not change ranges all through the check. This implies the testing was solely carried out with ANC disabled.
On this mode, I managed to get 8 hours and 47 minutes of utilization out of the earbuds after steady audio playback whereas utilizing the LHDC codec. With AAC, you’ll be able to in all probability anticipate an hour extra, getting it near the claimed 10-hour mark. OnePlus’ claims are typically dependable, so this is not shocking.
With that in thoughts, the 5 hours claimed determine with ANC and LHDC is ok but in addition a bit unremarkable.
Conclusion
The OnePlus Buds Professional 3 are priced at $180 however may be had for $150. As ordinary, OnePlus is undercutting the larger manufacturers whereas kind of providing the identical bells and whistles.
Exterior of audio high quality, the Buds Professional 3 is a really well-made product. It has good design and construct high quality, consolation, all of the options you’d need, wonderful noise cancellation, good microphone high quality, nice latency efficiency, and respectable battery life. You mainly have all of the substances for a winner, particularly for the worth.
However then we come to the audio high quality. Whereas the default tuning is inoffensive, it is exhausting to overstate how a lot the nerfing of the Dynaudio featured preset negatively affected the general audio analysis. Somebody on the firm delivered a virtually completely tuned preset after which somebody a lot worse at their job took over and determined to wreck it. You not often get to see this stage of self-own, but right here it’s. Except OnePlus reverts this transformation, most individuals outdoors of early reviewers won’t ever get to expertise the unique tuning, which saddens me.
I now have in entrance of me two items, one in all which continues to be on the unique firmware that I am by no means upgrading. The opposite has been up to date and what folks will really be shopping for. The primary one is what I will be utilizing going ahead. The opposite one is again inside its field.
Execs
- Good design and construct high quality
- Handy squeeze gestures
- Characteristic-rich app with good customizability
- Good microphone efficiency
- Nice noise cancellation and transparency
- Nice latency efficiency
Cons
- Excellent audio high quality ruined by a software program replace
- No LDAC; LHDC nonetheless a rarity on telephones